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MALABO. — Zambia’s lead striker Emmanuel Mayuka is set to return to Southampton this week after a double groin injury effectively ruled him out of the African Nations Cup in another blow to his country’s hopes, officials said yesterday.

Mayuka, who has played just 49 minutes of Southampton’s impressive Premier League run this season, hurt himself on Thursday when Zambia lost their second group game in Ebibeyin to Tunisia.

It followed a knee injury to key midfield Nathan Sinkala in their first game — a 1-1 draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo — that ruled the Grasshoppers Zurich player out of the rest of the tournament in Equatorial Guinea.

Zambia, the 2012 winners, need victory in their last Group B match against Cape Verde tonight to stand any chance of a advancing to the weekend’s quarter-finals.

In 2013, when the 16-team continental tournament moved to odd-numbered years, Cape Verde unexpectedly reached the knock-out round in its debut but has only earned two points in Equatorial Guinea.

“It’s not how much you fall, but how strong do you get up . . . and move forward,” Zambia coach Honour Janza said. “And that’s what Zambia is going to do in the next game, it’s how we go forward from the last match.”

Tunisia, which leads the group with four points, will face Congo in Bata. Congo also has two points and could advance with a win.

The winner of the group will face the second-place team from Group A in Ebebiyin on Saturday. Whichever teams finishes second will next face the Group A winner on the same day in Bata.

The Tunisians are the only team to earn a victory in the group so far, but they could still be eliminated with a loss to Congo depending on the result in the other match.

“Football is not statistics,” Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi said. “The next game will be so important for us to get through.”

Cape Verde should have some confidence heading into its final group match because the team from the island nation finished first in its qualifying pool ahead of Zambia. Each team won at home, but Cape Verde had already qualified for the final tournament when it lost in Zambia.

“I think we know about their quality and they know about us,” Cape Verde midfielder Toni Varela said. “During the two games that we have played against them, we played against a good technical team, a lot of individual quality, so we are prepared.” — SuperSport